Should I Cover?????

[Mastermind]

Or will it season better with the air flow thru the stacks?

 

[TreeTangler]

I leave my stacks open to the elements with great success. A vast majority of folks will tell you to cover the tops of your piles.

 

[DCC]

I leave mine uncovered all year.

 

[Mastermind]

Normally I just cover the one I using out of........wanted to see what others do.

 

[TreePointer]

Me, too. I only cover this season's wood to be burned, and that's only in September after a dry stretch and before the autumn rains (usually a long wet stretch caused by the remnants of some hurricane/tropical storm).

 

[Steve NW WI]

Cover if you want, but think about this. When you sit on a picnic table a couple days after it rained, does your butt still get wet? If it does, move your sprinkler. Surface moisture is just that, and goes away almost as quickly as it comes.

 

[Jim Timber]

What about heavy snow?

I don't heat with wood yet, but I'm thinking I'll want to keep the slush and ice from sticking the top of the pile together.

 

[windthrown]

Gott'a cover here in the PNW or it will never dry. Cornell University recommends coving the top to keep rain water off for faster/better drying.

Nice stacks. What kinda wood is that?

 

[dingeryote]

Windthrown!!! DOOOHOOOD!!!!!!!! Good ta see ya!

As for covering or not, I don't. Hardly anyone I know does. Airflow is the biggest thing either way.

A good layer of snow on top doesn't seem to affect anything, except being a PITA to knock off in the middle of Febuary.

Nice stacks!! You're making me feel bad, as mine is still in piles from last years splitting, or green and stacked in the woods.
I HATE stacking...

 

[sb47]

I’ve been selling wood for a long time and have a yard full of wood all the time.

I stack it on two treated 4x4’s (sometimes pallets) and use t-post every 8 feet and stack it 4 feet high out in the open with about a foot between rows.

I just use old scrap plywood or sheets of tin and cover the top only.

Being off the ground keeps water from wicking up through the wood and allows air flow under the stack. The top cover is just to keep the bulk of the rain off the stack and allows for fast drying when the sun comes out.

Out of all the ways I’ve tried, this works best for me.


You have them stacked nice and spaced apart well so just lay something over the top and your good. I don’t recommend using any kind of tarp at all. Not even just on the top.

 

[Ironworker]

Same as most, I only cover during the burning season. The third stack from the left seems to be listing a little to the right, better go fix that before it topples over.

 

[haveawoody]

I cover just the top to shed rain/snow with clear plastic as the cover to let the light in.
On sunny days a few rows under the clear plastic get quite hot and those 4 or 5 top rows are always cured a month or two ahead of the rest of the stack.
Almost a must to have some top cover format here starting about October when the sun is getting less powerful to remove moisture and before snow starts falling.
My clear plastic top cover just stays all year and VS open air stacks I see little to no difference other than October to February when the top cover wood is much better.

 

[olyman]

mine stays uncovered,,until just about snow,,then I cover it,,as I don't want the snow stuck to the wood when I throw in the basement...tho as spidey will attest to,,last week, we had 1/2 of rain two successive days. then Monday, we gots 1 1/2 inches of rain!!! the stack has been covered for two weeks now..glad I got it on when I did!!!!

 

[blacklocst]

Nice stacks, I would have guessed that you only burned saw dust and cookies.

 

[sam-tip]

I cover the stack I a burning from when it snows. Snow is just a pain. The resent rains did make it harder but it dries so fast in the wind. I do keep a reserve inside for when I can't get it covered in time.

 

[Whitespider]

Yeah, we got drenched here on Monday... a cold, hard, all-day rain... but yesterday was sunny, windy and cool... my stacks are plenty dry again, as it's just surface moisture that evaporates near as fast as water on pavement. Heck, last night I pulled some off the top of one stack for a fire in the shop... it was plenty dry and burned just fine. Even rain-soaked firewood will dry really fast when moved in the house... especially during winter when relative humidity is low.

I'd never heard of coverin' (unseasoned) firewood before joinin' AS... never even seen it done?? Some people will move it into a shed after it's fully seasoned... like after two years or so. Me?? I just toss enough in the basement close to the furnace every fall to last all season... so yeah, I reckon that's like puttin' it in a shed just before heatin' season. Although it is a bit different because all off my firewood is kept pre-warmed at room temperature... or basement temperature.

Even in mid-winter, when the stacks get covered with snow and ice, a couple days of sunshine will usually clean them right off as the dark-colored wood soaks-up the solar heat. In the past, when I knew I'd be needin' to retrieve some wood from outside within a few days, I've laid some old planks on top just so I can flip any snow/ice off easily... but in reality, a little weather-watchin' and foreplannin' will eliminate even that.

 

[Fred Wright]

Yep, we cover the top of a stack we'll be burning. The rest stay uncovered. Late summer is when I pull a cover over the stack.

 

[greendohn]

Before building my woodshed, I used tarps on the top of my woodstacks. 4x4's under the woodstacks to keep 'em off the ground.

 

[Whiskey_Bravo]

Excellent advice here. You guys brought up a lot of good points that I never considered. I scored some tarp material from a lumber yard recently and I think i will put that materiel over this seasons wood ASAP.

 

[sam-tip]

Why stacked wood? Thought you would have lots of cookies to burn with all the saw testing.